Extremely dissatisfied - How do I get out of Viatalk ?

[achab]

Hi,

I have been using Viatalk since last December. The first 5 months were good, except for the fax not working most of the time. This month (May 2007), the service has become totalling unacceptable. Too much static, phone numbers being dropped, I can hear people but they can't hear me, etc. Not all the time, but most of the time.

I went to another provider and tried to transfer my number, but got a message that my number cannot be transferred. I guess it's somehow locked with Viatalk now. I just submitted a support request to Viatalk asking how what I need to do to enable the transfer.

Do you have an idea how to enable to the transfer ? Is it feasable online ? Or do I have to ask Viatalk to enable it ?

Thanks,


Abdenour

PS: I paid for 2 years of service - anybody managed to get a pro-rated refund after getting out ? With or without small claims court.

[abaldish]

Hi,

I have been using Viatalk since last December. The first 5 months were good, except for the fax not working most of the time. This month (May 2007), the service has become totalling unacceptable. Too much static, phone numbers being dropped, I can hear people but they can't hear me, etc. Not all the time, but most of the time.



Well at least i am not the only person that has this problem ( oo much static, phone numbers being dropped, I can hear people but they can't hear me, etc )

I would love to really know what the problem is with viatalk.
Also did a ticket last night it is now 24hrs later and still no reply from tech support. And the ticket was marked as urgent. Then today had to be the pits for calls. had DND on last night mother in law tried to call me this morning and i even have her number in the whitelist for the call to get through, and guess what it didn't she got to voicemail left a message but there was no message there, and my step daughter called this morning left a message and it was 0 bytes.

So ViaTalk has some serious problems, and i want answers to what the problem is i didn't pay for service that is not reliable!!!!

[connervt]

Also did a ticket last night it is now 24hrs later and still no reply from tech support. And the ticket was marked as urgent.

What did you expect? It is the middle of memorial day weekend. And yours is a chronic problem, which no one has yet been able to solve. Think someone will be able to solve it this weekend? :rolleyes:

[abaldish]

What did you expect? It is the middle of memorial day weekend. And yours is a chronic problem, which no one has yet been able to solve. Think someone will be able to solve it this weekend? :rolleyes:

See you call it a chronic problem, DND is that DND with a white list for important calls to get to you. As in a mother in law that is in her late 70's. So if there was a problem she could get hold of us, not end up in voicemail and never get the message as just went poof into mid air. The point of the matter is if your service is not to par. Don't offer it till you know for a fact it is working 100% at least.

Sorry to vent a tad here, But I managed two internet providers over the course of 8 years, and had tech support 24/7. And the last provider I managed we where rated 100% customer satisfaction for the local market area. I am the type of person that has a strong hold on the matter of the customer is always right. Even though they may be wrong in a few areas.

Now to just make a point here. I called tech support this morning when I seen what has happened. Want to know what I was told. No idea what happened. Like there is no way to see where the voice mail ended up at. That is what is called logs to look at to see if it may have ended up in someone else’s mail folder or not.

Not to mention that also I run a business a few of them here. And this line is for my home phone service, Business runs from the cell line as if I am on the road don't want to miss a call.

I even went to the part of comparing services between providers to see who had what, and really like all the features that ViaTalk does offer. When I look at a company to do business with I do all the background work, As in doing a lookup on the Better Business Bureau to see what there rating is, Also they have to be a member of the BBB or I try not to even touch them unless that have a long history as in 2+ yrs of being in business.

Even though I am on a BYOD with I have two linksys units and even did a compare to the settings of a pap2 that is sent by viatalk the problems are still there, and after bouncing around to the other forums and we are talking about 5 total, there are even complaints in those about the same type of problems. But I don’t take it to the other forums I bring to the one that is for the company to try to get answers just in case there is another user with the same issues reading in the same forum and to share ideas to try to get to the bottom if the issue.

Ok now I am done venting for now!

Have a great morning since it is 12am now!

[connervt]

I think you wish to vent, more than you want your problem resolved. Why else would someone spend Memorial Day weekend writing about the telephone?

You do know what "chronic" means, yes? A long term, ongoing problem. We agree that you are having a problem. But it is unreasonable to think that, after not being able to resolve it in several weeks, that it will miraculously be solved on a Friday night, during a holiday weekend.

If your main problem is that you have unreliable communications, and need them to be reliable during a possible medical emergency, I can solve that one for you. Get POTS service. That's the only service that is guaranteed to come close to working "100% at least". This is what responsible people do...

[abaldish]

I think you wish to vent, more than you want your problem resolved. Why else would someone spend Memorial Day weekend writing about the telephone?

You do know what "chronic" means, yes? A long term, ongoing problem. We agree that you are having a problem. But it is unreasonable to think that, after not being able to resolve it in several weeks, that it will miraculously be solved on a Friday night, during a holiday weekend.

If your main problem is that you have unreliable communications, and need them to be reliable during a possible medical emergency, I can solve that one for you. Get POTS service. That's the only service that is guaranteed to come close to working "100% at least". This is what responsible people do...

As you stated above, you think I want to vent more than wanting the problem resolved. You are incorrect on the issue, I have placed numerous calls into tech support when these issues would arise, These issues have been ongoing since I signed up on April 7th the main problem I always run into is the one where you place the call to someone you can hear them and they can't hear you. Or they can hear you and you can't hear them, The DND could have been a hiccup with the system I can understand that part of it since this only happened once so far, but at least they should be able to tell what happened to the call and where the voice mail ended up.

[Chulo]

Conner,
In Abaldish's defense, the chronic problem is not his. In fact according to many forums around the net, it is not user specific. I can confirm that 3 different Viatalk customers in my family, including myself, have all experienced these problems with three different isp's. Additionally, I personally have ruled out any problems on my end.
This problem has been worsening for a while, and it's extremely frustrating when your expecting an important call that doesn't ring through, so I can completely understand if somebody chooses to vent, or look for help (or both). Besides, posting here might be the only way VT realizes that theres a problem.

Abaldish- Have you tried a stun server? It wont fix the VT problem with incomming calls, but it could affect the one-way audio.

[connervt]

Venting in public just releases one's emotions at the expense of others. It is not what mature people do.

Ranting is similar to venting. It is not meant as much to release one's pent up emotions, but rather to inflict pain and discomfort to those the ranter feels has slighted them. The posts more resemble this.

All I have done is remark that the expectation that a chronic problem would be resolved over a holiday weekend is not based in reason.

And I agree, it is extremely frustrating when one realizes they made a poor decision to choose VOIP over POTS when one needs a completely reliable telephone service.

[abaldish]

Conner,
In Abaldish's defense, the chronic problem is not his. In fact according to many forums around the net, it is not user specific. I can confirm that 3 different Viatalk customers in my family, including myself, have all experienced these problems with three different isp's. Additionally, I personally have ruled out any problems on my end.
This problem has been worsening for a while, and it's extremely frustrating when your expecting an important call that doesn't ring through, so I can completely understand if somebody chooses to vent, or look for help (or both). Besides, posting here might be the only way VT realizes that theres a problem.

Abaldish- Have you tried a stun server? It wont fix the VT problem with incomming calls, but it could affect the one-way audio.

Yepper I do have the stun server enabled on the unit.
Also got a reply from support, and got on the phone with this just a little bit ago trying some different port numbers, and also rtp ports and see if this will correct the problem or not.
Of course I have been tinkering with the ports numbers off and on when the problem would pop up all the time.

As in connervt's message above, you may think I am venting, I am in a tad, as after awhile it does get to you when you run into problems like the above. But the point of the fact is you have to keep hammering at it until you or the provider come up with where is the problem located and once that is figured out how to fix it.

I have been into the VOIP game for about 3 1/2 yrs now, and seen bells and whistles with different providers. The only way to get to the bottom of the problem is not sit back and be quite all the time. If you bounce around all the forums like a few of us do you will see there are problems not with just viatalk but the others also.

As in your reference as going back to a pots line no thanks.
As technology changes from day to day. There will be the day that does come when pots lines will no longer exist.

[Chulo]

And I agree, it is extremely frustrating when one realizes they made a poor decision to choose VOIP over POTS when one needs a completely reliable telephone service.

Switching to VoIP was one of the smartest decisions I made. With my other provider (Lingo), VoIP service is exactly like POTS, with 100% incomming call success rate (for over 2 years) and the same internet connection. The poor decisions I made were bringing a line to Viatalk, and paying up front for it.
When the service is working, it works well, but how much longer until VT is up to speed?

[rhill2901]

abaldish's complaint is legit. Viatalk promises 24/7 service and should take care of his problem no matter what day of the year it is. Viatalk even fails on their own promise:

QUOTE:
ViaTalk provides the most cost effective, complete broadband phone service package available to United States residential and business customers alike. The key to our competitive advantage is our unparalleled customer service, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. By providing you with the utmost level in customer service, ViaTalk ensures you a smooth, easy transition from traditional phone service to our next generation VoIP phone service. By providing you with this extra level of service, we ensure you that your home and business communications will go uninterrupted while you are going through the process of saving hundreds of dollars a year on phone service.
UNQUOTE:

Viatalk is even compairing their service with POTS and assuring you that your phone will go uniterrupted. According to abaldish, viatalk didn't live up to their end of the contract. Any claims that VOIP isn't POTS was falsely made. If Viatalk is going to compare their service to what you got from POTs, well, then, they should face the wrath of disgruntled customers.

Richard